Using urban forest assessment tools to model bird habitat potential

Authors

Susannah B. Lerman, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USAFollow
Keith H. Nislow, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest ServiceFollow
David J. Nowak, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Syracuse, NY, USAFollow
Stephen DeStefano, U.S. Geological Survey, Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USAFollow
David Todd Jones-Farrand, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Amherst, MA, USAFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2013

Citation

Landscape and Urban Planning 122 (2014) 29– 40

Comments

This article is a U.S. government work, and is not subject to copyright in the United States.

Abstract

The alteration of forest cover and the replacement of native vegetation with buildings, roads, exotic vegetation, and other urban features pose one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity. As more land becomes slated for urban development, identifying effective urban forest wildlife management tools becomes paramount to ensure the urban forest provides habitat to sustain bird and other wildlife populations. The primary goal of this study was to integrate wildlife suitability indices to an existing national urban forest assessment tool, i-Tree. We quantified available habitat characteristics of urban forests for ten northeastern U.S. cities, and summarized bird habitat relationships from the literature in terms of variables that were represented in the i-Tree datasets. With these data, we generated habitat suitability equations for nine bird species representing a range of life history traits and conservation status that predicts the habitat suitability based on i-Tree data. We applied these equations to the urban forest datasets to calculate the overall habitat suitability for each city and the habitat suitability for different types of land-use (e.g., residential, commercial, parkland) for each bird species. The proposed habitat models will help guide wildlife managers, urban planners, and landscape designers who require specific information such as desirable habitat conditions within an urban management project to help improve the suitability of urban forests for birds.